Headlight bulbs

The best bulbs I have found are GE Nighthawk (not sport), and Silvania Xtravision. I have heard good things about Phillips Vision Plus I believe its called. Stay away from all the colored or tinted bulbs including Silverstar. All the tinted bulbs do is filter the light to seem more white/blue, but actually reduce light output.

Also, if you headlight assemblies are yellow or cloudy, the best bulb on the planet isn't going to help much. If that is the case get some Crystal View Headlight cleaner/polish.

Phillips bulbs should be good. They offer regular replacement and increased brightness. I'm not sure which ones your looking at. Just make sure they don't have a blue coating on them. I believe that you will need 9004 bulbs.

Also no bulb will produce its rated output unless you upgrade to a headlight relay harness.

ive always used the top-tier Sylvania Silverstars. how do they compare to the others listed?

and how so upgrade the harness? thicker gauge wiring?

really

not trying to be a douche but seriously if you want bright lights get a h i d conversion kit or sumthin but an entire discussion on headlight bulbs stangnet has gone to poo sorry

HIDs are not an upgrade to a properly upgraded halogen setup, largely because HIDs have maximum glare for the light output, improper focus unless a proper projector is used, and poor color rendering. As I stated above, its not just wiring, I said an upgraded relay harness, it comes as a plug and play kit. It bypasses all the high resistance factory wiring, which has many benefits. Firstly, your bulbs produce their rated output, most stock setups reduce the brightness by up to 30%. Secondly, because the load of the headlights is no longer on the stock wiring, your headlight switch and multifunction switches last much much longer.

Those who claim HIDs are brighter are correct, but that does not help you see better. The color of the light is critical, and the yellow light of the halogen is well suited to night vision, while the dominantly blue light of the HIDs causes the eyes to switch to day vision mode. At night, your are in a dark world, which means your eyes need to be adjusted to see in the dark, you will have an illuminated zone in front of you, but you still need to be able to see in the dark. Blue light has a high energy, which cause the rod cells in your eyes, the ones responsible for seeing in the dark, to shut down. It can take several minutes for them to reset and again allow proper night vision. The cone cells are not well suited to seeing in the dark.

Halogens produce large amounts of red, yellow, and orange lights. They produce less blue, which would impair night vision. The color and brightness of the headlights was studied and determined a long time ago when scientists wanted to know how night vision works.

HIDs produce light from an electric arc that jumps a gap through a special gas. This makes the gas glow. The problem is that the colors produced tend to be intense spikes of specific colors. They produce some spikes of yellow, and intense amounts of various blues. They produce little light of other colors, a problem found in common with flourescent tubes (which have come a long way). It can make distinguishing certain colors difficult. HIDs main advantage is the amount of light they produce for very little energy. The problems are the color rendering and the brightness.

If you do HIDs, they will be out of focus in a halogen reflector, and those who argue otherwise are basically stating that the laws of physics have made an exception for them. They are also not the ones who have to deal with the glare of the headlights, it is oncoming traffic that has to cope with the ill effects.

The best upgrades you can make to your lighting, is first to optimize the power that reaches the bulbs. This is where the harness comes in. A 30% increase in brightness is nothing to shrug at. It is an inexpensive upgrade with other benefits. The next best upgrade is converting from DOT headlights to eCode. Ecode has a better beam pattern that puts more light on the road and reduces glare. They are not DOT approved because they do not illuminate overhead signs. This being said, you should still be able to see the signs, and the tradeoff for more light on the road is worth it in my opinion. Plus they reduce glare, which is always a good thing.

The world leading lighting consultancy is www.danielsternlighting.com. These guys state the facts.

I'm with KhanTyranitar. Retrofitted HID setups are illegal for a reason. The optics of the headlight assembly are incorrect. They produce excessive glare to oncomming drivers. Every time I see one coming the other way, I wish a had a laser sighted pellet gun.

Bansheeman6100 said:

ive always used the top-tier Sylvania Silverstars. how do they compare to the others listed?

and how so upgrade the harness? thicker gauge wiring?

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Those are still coated or colored bulbs. They are about the best of that variety you can get, but still inferior.

The relay setup usually uses a little heavier gauge wiring.

Sylvania's Silverstar always worked for me, and I use to deliver pizza at night a lot.

@tx65coupe
you don't need to upgrade the wiring harness, they are direct replacements.

The best Bulbs are the Sylvania Xtravision, which is an uncoated bulb, or the GE Nighthawk which is also uncoated, the Sylvania Silverstars are coated, as are the GE Nighthawk Ultra.

PS, you do need to upgrade the wiring if you want full output, any bulb you use with be 15 - 30% brighter with upgraded wiring and relays. The stock wiring makes it impossible to get full brightness.

silver pony said:

Sylvania's Silverstar always worked for me, and I use to deliver pizza at night a lot.

@tx65coupe
you don't need to upgrade the wiring harness, they are direct replacements.

Click to expand...

I know they are direct replacements. Adding relays is still a good idea even with the stock bulbs. It will make them brighter and take the load off the switch.

I found out years ago that the Sylvania Silverstars have a more blue cast than regular "yellow" halogens and, at least for me, make things more difficult to see at night much like Khan said. The majority of my night driving is on unlit rural roads, too. I have the same problem with "white" LED flashlights and headlamps affecting contrast and texture(I'm not colorblind, BTW). My SVO has regular sealed-beam bulbs with reddish orange instrument lights and it is much more comfortable to drive at night.

Something I have wanted to try something with more yellow like amber bulbs, but I don't think they're legal for anything but supplementary fog lamps.

Silverstars don't have blue tint on them.

Silverstars have a film that makes them look whiter, but in reality, the natural color of a halogen light, which has a yellowish tint, is the best for night vision. Studies were done back in the early days of automobiles to determine what colors were best for indicators, and they found that night vision in general is best with a yellow dominant light similar in color to natural sunlight. The sun sends a strong yellow glow that is rich in all colors, and appears white by virtue of its brightness. A manmade light will appear more yellow because the brightness is not comparable to the sun, but you wouldn't want something that low to ground to be that bright anyway.